Sermon - 6th September 2026
Creationtide
On this Sunday as we reflect on creation I’d like to take us back to our ‘why’ – why should this be important to us as Christians?
If you were to walk into an art gallery today and look at a painting by Vincent van Gogh, you wouldn’t need to look at the signature to know who painted it. The thick, swirling brushstrokes, the vibrant, contrasting yellows and blues, and the heavy texture on the canvas tell you instantly: This is a Van Gogh. An artist always leaves their fingerprints on their masterpiece.
When we open our Bibles to Genesis 1 and John 1, we are walking into the grandest art gallery in the universe. We are looking at the canvas of creation—from the vast, spiralling galaxies down to the intricate, microscopic double-helix of your DNA. For centuries, people have looked at the world and asked how it got here or when it got here. But this morning, these two magnificent passages invite us to look closer at the canvas and ask Who.
When we look closely at the opening chapters of Scripture, we discover something beautiful, profound, and deeply comforting: Creation was never a solo project. The creation of the universe was an overflow of love, design, and power from the Triune God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—working in flawless harmony to bring life out of nothing.
Genesis 1:1 begins with words we know by heart: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”
Think of God the Father as the Grand Architect of creation. Every masterpiece begins as an idea, a vision, a blueprint in the mind of the designer. Before there was time, space, matter, or light, there was the Father.
But why did He create? There is a common misconception that God was lonely, sitting in the dark of eternity, and decided He needed some company, so He made humans. But that completely misses the beauty of the Trinity. Before the world existed, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit experienced a relationship of perfect love, perfect joy, and perfect community. They didn’t need anything.
Instead, think of a happily married couple who love each other deeply. They don’t have a child because their marriage is empty or lonely; they have a child because their love is so full it simply cannot be contained. It overflows. Creation is the joyous overflow of the Trinity’s eternal love. The Father willed the universe into existence not out of a deficit, but out of an abundance. Every sunset, every mountain peak, and every single person sitting in this room was intentionally willed into being by the Father’s sovereign love. You are not an accident; you are the Father’s deliberate design.
If the Father is the Architect who willed the blueprint, how did that blueprint become reality? Let’s look at Genesis 1:3: “And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light.” Notice how God creates. He doesn’t use tools or physical materials; He speaks.
For thousands of years, readers wondered about the mystery of this spoken word. Then, John 1 unmasks the mystery. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God… Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.”
Jesus Christ, the eternal Son, is the Word. He is the active Agent of creation. He is the divine voice that translates the Father’s blueprint into physical reality.
Think of it like music. A composer can have a beautiful symphony completely written out in their head—that is the blueprint. But until those notes are played, until the sound waves travel through the air, the symphony cannot be experienced. Jesus is the expression of the Father’s heart. When God said, “Let there be light,” Jesus is the Word that made the photons fire across the darkness.
This changes how we view Jesus. He didn’t just appear for the first time in a manger in Bethlehem. He is the cosmic Creator. Colossians tells us that by Him all things hold together. Right now, the atoms in your body, the rotation of the earth, and the laws of gravity are being actively sustained by the voice of Jesus. The physical light that burst forth on day one of creation finds its ultimate source in the spiritual light of Christ.
But the picture is still not complete. Let’s look back at Genesis 1:2. The Bible paints a picture of the earth right at the very beginning: “Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep…” It was a chaotic, dark, wild canvas. But look at the very next sentence: “…and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.”
The Hebrew word used here for Spirit is Ruach, which literally means “breath” or “wind.” And the word for “hovering” is the same word used to describe a mother eagle fluttering over her nest, protecting her eggs, waiting for them to hatch.
Think of God the Holy Spirit as the Animator, the Giver of Life. The Father wills it, the Son speaks it, and the Spirit warms, protects, and breathes life into it.
I love watching the Great Pottery Throw down – I marvel at what they can do with clay on a pottery wheel. The clay starts as a cold, formless, grey lump spinning wildly. But then the artist places his hands around the clay. With gentle, steady pressure, he guides the chaos. He shapes the walls, smooths the rough edges, and transforms a useless lump into a beautiful, functional vessel.
That is what the Holy Spirit does. The Spirit takes what is chaotic, empty, and dark, and brings order, beauty, and life out of it. Throughout scripture, whenever God wants to bring life out of dead spaces, the Spirit breathes.
When we look at the Trinity in creation, we see a beautiful tapestry: willed by the Father, spoken by the Son, and animated by the Spirit. And it all culminates in Genesis 1:26, where God says, “Let US make mankind in OUR image, in OUR likeness.”
The Triune God created you to be a part of the family. We were made to enjoy the love that the Father, Son, and Spirit have shared for eternity.
But we know the story didn’t stay perfect. Sin entered the world, fracturing our relationship with the Creator, bringing chaos and darkness back into our hearts. We became like that formless, empty earth in verse 2.
But the Triune God did not abandon His canvas. John 1:14 gives us the ultimate turning point of history: “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” The Creator stepped onto the canvas. The One who spoke the stars into space allowed Himself to be nailed to a tree.
And today, that same Triune God is still in the business of creation. If you feel like your life is chaotic, dark, or empty this morning, remember Genesis 1:2. The Spirit of God is still hovering over the broken areas of your life, ready to breathe new life into you. When we come to Christ, the Father adopts us, the Son redeems us, and the Spirit transforms us into a brand-new creation.
The masterpiece isn’t finished. The Artist is still at work, and He is inviting us into His family today. Amen.
